Ryan Bracker

Photography: David Gray

Hilary Crahan

when you first meet love

your eyes will be colored with it
and you will walk

enchanted

pausing to look up at the sky
listening to the melody in rain

this love will make you feel
limitless
and destined for grand things

but when it begins to strip away your shield and armor
scratching and clawing its way
inside
this love will scare you

and you will choose not to
believe
and you will leave it by the side of the road for the hens to peck
and you will run

and you will try on others
and with a hardened heart
you will forget
for so many years
that the smallest seed
always
contains a blooming tree within


until a day
when your body is worn down by
disease
and you are not sure of anything beyond tears
this Love
will find you again and gently lift your head
to the warmest cup of
broth


and you will
finally
understand

My friend and local Poet/Artist/Writer Hilary Crahan is an extremely talented woman who is prolific in her ability to create. She has self published a number of books, paints, writes poetry and does sculpture. She has been busy with her site, blog and has a new poetry book coming out so check it out   www.crimsonartbotique.com 

The poem above is from her blog, which I have become a fan. I have to admit that ever since my days in college and my boring poetry class I swore off the stuff. But, much to my surprise, I have warmed up to it after reading Hilary's blog and even had my own poor attempts at writing my own. Good job Hilary! Seriously, if you can get me to write poetry you are amazing. Enjoy.

"Seal" by John Culqui

John sent this in. He did it live at the show he had on Friday. Check out his site for more work. Lots of cool stuff. Enjoy.

www.jsculquiart.com

Taylor Knox

Photo by David Gray

Chris Del Moro

photos by David Gray

Chris Del Moro and Kevin Short are having an art show tomorrow night at the Pacific Surf Gallery in Cardiff. See flyer for details!

John Culqui Fin

Here's a fine little fin by artist John Culqui. It makes me smile. I love it. John will be having a show TONIGHT for all you who live in and around Long Beach. Enjoy.

RAPANUI Fin

Our friend Joe Rolle over at Rapanui Clothing sent in this fin. Rapanui is a really unique clothing company out of Wight England in that takes eco clothing/fashion to a whole new level by tracking and displaying where their garments are made and travel. Doing this gives a level of transparency to their product line and brings awareness to the issues of ecology and garment production. 

Take a look at their video on why they started Rapanui. It was inspiring to me. I was fascinated by the numbers that 80% of the environmental impact of clothing happens post purchase. I was also fascinated on why they are choosing to do what they do.

I was really excited when Joe contacted us to want to be involved in The Leucada Project, as these guys are award winning eco entrepreneurs. We hope to do more with them in the future and will support them in any way we can.

Great job guys your doing great!

Checkout their site at www.rapanuiclothing.com 

Iomal

Fresh art by our good friend Iomal from Italy. Check out his blog at www.bodasurf.blogspot.com

Thanks Iomal!

Kids Love Fins.

 It's summer. Break out the fins, the pens and some paper and have yourself an art project.

Photos By David Gray

Soul Collage

Chris Del Moro

Ryan Bracker

Chris Del Moro

Chad

Grinder

Grandview Local

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. For those of you who have kids you know how lucky you are. Enjoy the day!

This photo is great. It shows the fearlessness a parent has. It was taken by my Dad, Robert M. Lewis, a photographer who grew up in San Diego and has a passion for documenting the beauty in our region. He has his own blog over at thesandiegophotoproject.blogspot.com. I recommend you check it out. It has some truly beautiful images of San Diego.

My entire life my Dad has been an inspiration to me. Drawing with me as a little guy and then helping me with writing assignments and art projects in college. He got me my first real camera and has been coaching me ever since.

He is also my copy editor for this site. You wouldn't know he is even involved but every post that goes out, he diligently edits out all my misspellings and points me in the right direction with sentence structure. I owe a great deal of thanks to him for that.

Here is to you Dad for all you have done for me in my life. Whether it was art, writing, girls, you name it you've been there for me.  I appreciate all the help and support with the things I've gotten passionate about in my life. It means the world to me.

Much Love, Ed

Bonzer Love'n - I Got It Bad

Had the fortune of stopping by Surfy Surfy today and decided to try out their board demo program. JP had been telling me he has REAL boards that he lets people demo. The same boards you see on his site. I've been a fish love'n man for sometime but there is something about the Bonzer that intrigues me so I gave it a go. 

JP suggested the 5'10" Bumble Bee three fin Bonzer. He said it would float me similar to my fish. He was right. It had all the volume I like and it was an easy transition form my board.

I took her out and was seriously blown away. It was wide and full like my fish but it has the ability to do these bottom turns and whitewash rebounds that I just don't do on my fish. It also had a gas peddle. It was really fast.

I even had those moments when you feel like Tom Curren doing a bottom turn. I haven't done a proper bottom turn, well ever, but it felt like I did. Of course I didn't look like him I just had my mouth open and that look in my eye like I suddenly knew what I was doing. I love those moments. You feel like super star. 

I am seriously sold. I'd like to properly test it for a couple more sessions but I could honestly see myself buying one of these. It felt like a great all around board.

My hat goes off to the Cambell Bro's for making a great board. Thanks to JP for the demo it opened my eyes to something new. Next time I want to try out Eli's Twin Pin!

Peace.

1975 Skip Frye 5'8" Fish

My friend Rick Scott is a long time knee boarder. He has been at it since the 70's. He and his brother collectively own an amazing collection of boards. We featured them here a while back. All fish and many vintage from when they were kids.

This beauty has been kept up in his brothers garage in Oregon for last couple of decades. Rick took it on to have it refurbished by Joe Roper.

The board is amazing with the penciled in logo and signature and the disappearing stringer. It's a beauty. We are hoping to get to ride her! Enjoy.

Gun Metal Grape Hand Plane

My buddy Scott Anderson gets serious dad points. He ran into us at Fiesta Del Sol with his son and started checking out the hand planes. I hadn't seen his son since he was a little guy so I asked what all surf dads ask... "are you surfing yet?" His response was that he was into BMX. My guess is that like most kids he doesn't want to be TOO much like the old man. Understandable for sure.

Well, turns out that he is into body surfing. So for the next three days straight Scott gets an ear full of how cool the hand planes are.  Now Scott being a big kid at heart couldn't resist. He grew up body surfing with McDonald's trays with the boys on Oahu. So he called us up and had us save one for  his son's birthday that week.

Now my hat comes off to you Scott because you are a genius. Not only did you hook him up with a great gift, you figured out the gateway board for him to be riding a fish one day. Supper smart. He'll be riding that bike still for sure, but now it will be to get him to the beach. I love it. Enjoy.

More Fins - Bereket 6 and Alia 4

 I love the kids art! Keep it coming.

Mexy Blanket Hand Plane

Kipp's latest glass job, the Mexican Blanket. You have no idea how many times we glass these things and say out load that we wish we had a full size board like this. This is no exception. This one's up for grabs. Barrel love'n, van drive'n, hippies please inquire.  She needs a good home with lots of time in the water. Contact us

$1 Fin From Tahiti by Philippe Lallut

"Hi, this is my first fin project, i am a surfer artist, graphic designer from Tahiti, i love California!!!i Aorana- Philippe "   


I love getting emails like this. The fin art project is a favorite of mine. You can't imagine how stoked I get when someone sends a fin in. I really get excited about bring people together and witnessing the creativity. When you get a chance checkout  the gallery of all that have been sent in.  It's fun to look through. There are some great ones. Enjoy.

Geeks.com Handplane

We did this one for our friends over at Geeks.com. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they are a great business providing inexpensive computer parts to us computer geeks.

The great thing about their business, is not only that they provide fantastic pricing, but they are one of the first tech businesses that I have heard of who recycles and refurbishes computer parts and resells them.

You see a large part of their business is taking all those unwanted, excess computers and keeping them from the dump by refurbishing these computers and related parts and getting them back to store room quality. They will then resell the equipment to get it back into the tech food chain.

When I first got to see the company some 6 years ago, as a recycling nut, I was completely impressed by their business model. In an age of throwaway products they are the number one reseller of recycled tech products and on the first line of defense between the land fill and the proper reuse of computer parts.

They had us make this hand plane for them as they get what we are trying to do. They are supporters. They get that in every industry there is waste and the end to a life of a product. They also know that there are real ways to renew the life of the old products and clean up and reuse what's left over.

Thanks to the crew at Geeks.com for all the work they do to make the tech industry a cleaner place and for supporting us in our efforts to do what we can in the industry we love.

Do you want a super fun, recycled foam and neoprene hand plane? Contact us to order a custom one or to be put on our list when we send out what's available. Enjoy.

Micaiah Hardison

24"x48" November Swell. Oil on Canvas

15"x30" Hitting the Reef. Oil on Canvas

My friend Micaiah has been busy working on more paintings of our local seascapes. I'd hang the top one on my wall is a second. It just feels like home. Enjoy.

Enjoy Handplanes @ Surfy Surfy!

Yesterday was a big deal for Kipp and me. My friend JP at Surfy Surfy gave us the thumbs up and is now carrying our beloved handplanes. 

On a personal level it was a huge compliment to have a second generation glasser be impressed enough to carry them. JP doesn't carry crap, and every single product in his shop he believes in. So you can see why we are so stoked.

On another level it goes to show that mission to do something positive environmentally in the surf industry is actually working! People are loving them and we are now not only saving foam from broken boards and manufacturing waste, we are now recycling old wetsuits as well to make our handles. More on that later...

This project has been an education as well as just plain fun. We are really excited to see how far we can take this and to see what sort of difference we can make in an industry that we love so much.

Stay tuned to see what happens next. We can't wait to find out ourselves!

What I'm Watching - Little Black Wheels - Review

I've been taking my time with Little Black Wheels. I think that is what makes surf films so special. It isn't like the latest NetFlix movie you consumed in two hours and spit out never to watch again.  In an age of consumable media, the GOOD surf film is a rare exception to the rule. Instead of watching them once and moving on with your life, you take them in like a fine wine, sipping on them and savoring every flavor and feeling you get from it.

The good surf film is and always has been the way we get to re-experience as surfers what we do, how we look at the world and how we feel about what we are choosing to do with our lives. It's a way to reflect on the beauty and the stoke of what makes us get up in the morning.

Little Black Wheels to me is one of those surf films that is special. It gets better and better with time. It is one of those films that makes you feel great about choosing to spend your life in and around the water. It makes you connect with the special souls that bare themselves in the film and makes you get lost for a few moments of your day to feel completely stoked, inspired and ready to go find a right hander to do some turns on. 

The down and dirty of the film is that it is shot with style and a pure artistic eye. The surfing is great. Tons of soul and lots of barrels. Mick is like a painter with his images. Showing the value of detail in the world and the beauty of perspective. He combines it all with his knack to letting his cast tell their stores, surf their hearts out  and bare their souls for us to be inspired by what  they do is this world. 

The music in the film is down right great. I wish I had a sound track of this film.  I can't stop singing Beau Young's Horse Song. (You have to see it to get it.) Where can I get that CD?!

All and all its a must see. With soul surfing from Johnny Abbeg, Beau Young, Rasta, Kristian Spencer (Beard!), Jimmy McMillan  and a bunch of guys I've never even heard of but made me watch every turn and barrel with an open mouth and sparkle in my eye. It's also narrated in part by Mick's daughter Ruby who steels the show.

You can get it direct from Mick here 

I watched it so much I started taking stills for fun. Here's a few... 

There is always someone new in a film who sneaks up on me, shakes me up and makes me want to know more about them. In this film Kristian Spencer a.k.a. Beard was one of those guys who caught my attention. Beard is a barrel machine and a bad ass in my book. 

Johnny Abbeg and Sea Surfboards where two elements that make this film inspiring to me. Sea Surfboards is a resin tint love'n mans dream and Johnny is flawless in his soul surfing. Two segments that you won't want to miss.

Beau Young is and will always be a huge draw for me in Mick's films. His segment is great and learning about his profession as a children's song writer and singer was cool. The guy is talented for sure. How do I get that horse song?!

Dave Macaulay and his family was inspiring in that the whole lot of them surf. Dave was in the top 3 in the world in 1993 and he still rips. 

Jimmy McMillan was an inspiration. I won't spoil it but it's pretty remarkable he can even do this turn. 

Rasta is always one of my favorites. Seriously, what can you say, the guys just kills it with pure style on anything.

The movie is filled with details and perspectives that make the hard core photographer wish they were there to pull the trigger. It's filled with beauty from start to finish.

Ruby steals the show. 

5 months on the road with your pregnant wife, dog and little girl. Pretty amazing adventure.